End racial profiling by improving police practices

Profiling occurs when law enforcement officers unfairly target members of a group without the reasonable suspicion of criminal activity required to do so. Our focus is profiling based on race, which statistics demonstrate to be a particularly pervasive issue in some police departments across the United States. We aim to end the practice of racial profiling by enacting change in police department policy.

The question is not whether minorities such as blacks and Hispanics are stopped and searched more than whites (which is statistically evident), but whether these stops and searches are justified by the legitimate duty to protect individuals in high-crime areas.

Using the Los Angeles Police Department as an example, an ACLU study found that stopped blacks and Hispanics were 127% and 43% more likely to be frisked than stopped whites, respectively, even after controlling for crime rate by neighborhood. Similarly, stopped blacks were 76% more likely to be searched and stopped Hispanics were 16% more likely to be searched.

In response to this, the specific policies that should be implemented at the Los Angeles Police Department and other departments across the country are as follows:

a) Recognition of the issue of racial profilingb) Increase training of police in order to curb incidences of racial profilingc) Establish procedures to investigate and respond to specific allegations of racial profiling in a meaningful manner